We assert that the students' naive beliefs and
reasoning difficulties related to a particular topic which
are identified from an investigation conducted in one
subject area (such as physics) are certainly also poised to
interfere with instruction on the same topic while being
covered in a different subject area (geology, chemistry,
astronomy etc.) Furthermore the overall population of
students who enroll in the introductory non-science
major course through the introductory majors course in
one subject area (such as geology) may well provide a
representative sample of the general population of
students that enroll in the same range of courses within
any of the other subject areas (listed above) that teach
about radiation and radioactivity. We argue that the
research herein serves to both identify students' ideas
and inform the development of innovative instructional
strategies centered on helping students overcome their
naive beliefs and reasoning difficulties when being
taught in any of these subject areas (Prather, 2000).